Summary and Analysis: Greek Mythology 

The Beginnings
— Creation
Summary

In the beginning there was only Chaos, an empty void. But somehow this enormous
vacancy gave birth to Gaea, the earth, to Tartarus, the great region beneath the earth,
and to Eros, the shining god of love and attraction. Chaos also bore Erebus, the
darkness of the netherworld, and Night, the darkness over the earth. Then Erebus slept
with Night, who gave birth to Ether, the heavenly light, and to Day, the earthly light.
Later Night alone produced such beings as Doom, Fate, Death, Sleep, Dreams,
Nemesis, and a long list of other atrocities that steal upon men in darkness.

Meanwhile Gaea, without help, gave birth to Uranus, the starry sky, to the Mountains,
and to Pontus, the sterile sea. Uranus then became Gaea's mate and equal, for he
covered her on all sides. This primordial couple, sky and earth, produced the twelve
Titans, the three towering wheel-eyed Cyclopes, and the three terrible Hecatoncheires
with fifty heads and a hundred arms apiece.

However, Uranus proved to be a harsh husband and father. Each of the Hecatoncheires
hated him, and he hated them in return. In his anger Uranus pushed them back into
Gaea's womb and kept them there. Gaea writhed in pain at this and plotted revenge
upon her mate. She fashioned a flint sickle and called upon her other children to avenge
her. The Titans and Cyclopes recoiled in fear of their father, and only the last-born
Titan, Cronus, was daring enough.

That night when Uranus came to lie without Gaea the crafty Cronus was hiding in
ambush. He grabbed his father's genitals and severed them with his mother's sickle. As
the blood fell to earth the Furies, who punish crimes, the Ash-Tree Nymphs, and the
race of Giants were created. Cronus heaved the members into the sea, and from the
foam arose Aphrodite, the beautiful goddess of love, who floated along and stepped
ashore at Cyprus. The mutilated Uranus either withdrew forever from the earth or else
he perished. But before he did so he promised that Cronus and the other Titans would
be punished.

After confining the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires to Tartarus, Cronus established
his reign. He married his sister Rhea, and under his lordship the Titans produced many
offspring. Yet Cronus could not allow his own children to survive, for both Gaea and
Uranus had prophesied that Cronus would be supplanted by a son. When Rhea, his
wife, gave birth to the gods and goddesses Cronus swallowed Hestia, Demeter, Hera,
Hades, and Poseidon shortly after each was born. Rhea was furious and took pains to
save her sixth child, Zeus, from his father. She bore Zeus in secret and then gave
Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling bands to swallow instead.

Attended by nymphs, Zeus grew to manhood on Crete. Cronus, meanwhile, was

growing old. So Zeus sought advice on how to defeat him from the Titaness Metis, who
prepared an emetic potion. Disguised as a cupbearer, Zeus gave this potion to Cronus,
who vomited up Zeus's brothers and sisters, as well as the stone Rhea had given him.
The gods were alive and unhurt, and together with Zeus they triumphed over Cronus
and bound him in Tartarus. Zeus then set up the stone at Parnassus, a monument to his
victory over the Titan king.
Zeus's triumph, however, was far from secure. The other Titans, with the exception of
Prometheus and Oceanus, rebelled under these upstart gods. For ten years the fighting
lasted, a cosmos-shaking battle in which the elements of nature raged without check.
Neither the gods nor the Titans could secure a decisive victory. But then Zeus went
down to Tartarus and released the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed monsters. The
Cyclopes awarded Zeus their weapons of thunder and lightning, and the
Hecatoncheires pelted the Titans with boulders. And at last the Titans were defeated.
Zeus imprisoned them in Tartarus, and he condemned the rebel Atlas to stand forever
at the edge of the world and bear the heavens on his shoulders.

Gaea was enraged at the downfall of her children, the Titans. And through her union
with Tartarus she gave birth to one last monster, Typhoeus, a dragon with a hundred
heads that never rested. Terrified, most of the gods fled. But Zeus was captured and
confined. Released by Hermes, Zeus finally destroyed the dragon by hurling lightning at
it again and again, and by burying it under Etna in Sicily.

There was one more attempt to dislodge Zeus and the other Olympians from their
mastery of the world. The Giants, who had sprouted from Uranus' blood, were
dissatisfied, so they laid siege to Olympus by piling mountain upon mountain in an
attempt to scale it. It required all the prowess of the gods and the assistance of the
mortal Heracles to subdue and kill the Giants. Having vanquished the Titans, the dragon
Typhoeus, and the Giants, the rule of the Olympians was undisputed.

That version of the creation was taken largely from Hesiod, a Greek poet of the seventh
century B.C.. But here is an earlier story by way of contrast.

Eurynome, the goddess of all creation, arose from Chaos and separated the sea from
the sky. Then, dancing naked upon the waves, she created the wind and rubbed it in
her hands to create the serpent Ophion, who made love to her. Pregnant, Eurynome
became a dove and laid the World Egg, and Ophion coiled about the Egg and hatched
it. This Egg brought forth the cosmos and everything in it. Then Eurynome and Ophion
settled on Olympus, but their union was unhappy. When Ophion proclaimed himself the
Creator, Eurynome banished him to the netherworld. Finally Eurynome established the
seven planets, each with a Titan and Titaness to rule it. When man appeared he sprang
from the soil, and the first man, Pelasgus, taught the others to eat acorns, build huts,
and make a rude garment.